


Being Human is Hard

by FireSoul



Series: FireSoul's Tumblr Prompts! [13]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Human Gideon (DC's Legends of Tomorrow), Mild Blood, Periods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 12:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18315074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: Gideon is still getting used to being human, and there are certain things that some humans have to deal with. She knew that when she became human.But damn, periods hurt a lot more than she thought they would.





	Being Human is Hard

**Author's Note:**

> So this started as a "next five sentences following ______" prompt on Tumblr, but I just got very carried away with it. Original prompt was from agentmarymargaretskitz with "Being human is hard."

Gideon feels nauseous.

She has felt nauseous on and off for the past two days, yet she hasn’t actually felt the need to get sick. She isn’t sure if Rip’s noticed, she’s been trying to be discreet about it. She doesn’t think he’s noticed, it normally goes away by the time she should eat something. Actually, she isn’t entirely sure “nauseous” is even the right word to describe what she’s been feeling. She’s felt nauseous before, when she first became human and her body was getting use to actually being alive. This doesn’t feel like that. It doesn’t feel like her stomach is twisting and flipping over itself, but more of an achy feeling. Perhaps the term “stomachache” is more accurate to some human ailments than she previously thought.

Still, now she has reached the point in which she is making a conscious effort to stay standing straight the pain is so crippling, so maybe she should start worrying.

She manages to make it into the galley for breakfast and grabs a banana, she isn’t sure her stomach can handle anything more than that right now, even if she is hungry.

“You alright Gideon?” Zari asks when she lands heavily on the barstool next to her, and Gideon has to fight the urge to groan before answering her question.

“Yes Ms. Tomaz.” She says, wincing as she catches herself using Zari’s last name, old habits. “Or no, maybe not. I don’t know. I think something might be wrong with my body, I’ve felt sick for the last two days.”

Zari looks mildly worried by that announcement, though not so worried that she pauses in bringing her donut to her mouth. She’s been fine ever since she became human, for the most part, but Nora and John had still cautioned her to be aware of her body’s adjustment even as the months passed by, since they had essentially created an entirely new spell to give her full humanity.

“We should get you to the med bay.” Zari says, powder from her donut still coating her lips.

Gideon nods weakly, ordinarily she would probably put up more of a fight over going to the med bay for something as minor as a stomachache, but she is a little nervous about how it’s been getting worse.

She huffs, bracing herself for the simple motion of standing up, and with her palms pressed against the surface of the breakfast bar she pushes herself to her feet.

“Or not,” she hardly hears Zari’s quiet exclamation. “Um… Gideon?”

Gideon huffs, still leaning the majority of her weight onto the counter, but when she looks down at Zari she sees the other women staring at, of all things, her ass.

“What?” She asks, twisting herself and pulling at the fabric of her pajama bottoms because Zari’s face is one of almost worry, and she doesn’t understand why… until she sees it.

It’s like a bull’s-eye, nearly centered on the seat of her soft grey sweats; a dark red circle roughly the size of her thumb.

“What?” She exclaims, panic coursing through her as she tugs on the waistband of her pants, trying to twist the spot closer. Did she sit in something? But there’s nothing on the chair, and… Oh.

Oh.

_Oh._

Thankfully Zari’s mind is processing this much faster than her own, as she is still coming to the realization of what the red spot is when her friend’s favorite red flannel suddenly covers it, the arms of it’s owner snaking around her waist and trying the sleeves to secure it.

“Ok, scratch the med bay, let’s just get you to the bathroom.”

Gideon nods, and suddenly her stomach pain makes a lot more sense.

They walk down the halls of the ship in silence, something Gideon is very grateful for. They pass by Ray, and Sara, but not Rip; thankfully, because he would likely greet her and ask where she and Zari are off to, and that isn’t exactly a conversation she feels she knows how to begin right now.

Of course, her luck runs out at the bathroom.

The door is closed, which means someone’s inside. Zari doesn’t hesitate to knock, though, and the voice that calls out “occupied” belongs to Mick.

“Gideon and I need to get in there!” Zari replies with a roll of her eyes.

There’s no response, but there is the sound of a deep-throated wad of spit being hacked up, followed by the sink being turned off. Mick comes out a moment later, scowling at them both before he simply pushes through them with a growl.

“Thanks Mick.” Zari calls after him, gesturing for her to enter the bathroom.

She does as she’s instructed, and she’s grateful that her friend follows her in before shutting the door. It isn’t like she’s a child with no idea what is happening to her, she is fully aware of what is going on and the methods of dealing with it, but at the same time she is still a little freaked out.

“Ok, um…” Zari drawls, “Do you… You know what it is right?”

“Yes,” She nods with her answer, a little anxiously. “Menstruation. Although I believe the common phrase for it is a period.”

“Good.” Zari nods as well, her hands settling on her hips. “Ok, have you ever had one before?”

She shakes her head, “No.” She confirms, “No, Ms. Darh- Nora, warned me that it could take time.”

If she got one at all. The whole spell had been a gamble, but the chances of her reproductive system working at all had been one of the biggest parts of that. Nora had warned that she couldn’t be sure about it, in any aspect, so this? This is promising.

Another wave of pain hit her right then, of course.

So it’s progress, no matter how much it hurts.

“Ok.” Zari says, turning her attention to the closet. She shuffles various things around until she pulls out one box of pads and one box of tampons. “Ok, do you know how to use these?”

She eyes the boxes, biting at her lip as she thinks that question over, along with her track record with doing things on her own the first time.

“Logistically.” She answers, very unsure of herself.

Zari nods and gives her a quick rundown of each product, and then leaves her with them while she goes off to fetch her some clean underwear and pants.

There isn’t a LOT of blood, which she’ll take as a good thing, and soon she’s all cleaned up with her soiled clothes waded in her hands, along with Zari’s flannel, and she’s back to following Zari through the halls.

“Does it always hurt so much?” She asks as they reach her room, and she really has no idea where Rip has been this morning but she is grateful she is still yet to run into him; she’s still processing this.

“Sometimes.” Her friend answers, while she busies herself in burying her old pants at the bottom of the hamper and, ok, maybe she stays bent over the edge of it for a second or two longer than necessary, but it just feels so good to crouch into the pain.

“It depends on the woman.” Zari goes on, “Mine usually hurt the day before and the first day, but moving around helps, and sometimes I take painkillers if it’s bad. I remember my first one didn’t hurt, or have any side effects for that matter.”

She scoffs at that as she forces herself to straighten up.

“Well lucky you.” She remarks and her friend smirks.

“I was also a lot younger.” She recounts, “You’re a full grown adult, your body can handle the side effects.”

Again, she scoffs.

“Try telling my body that.” With that she flops down onto her bed, because now that she knows what’s wrong with her she isn’t planning on moving unless there is an actual emergency, and maybe not even then. “This sucks.”

Zari chuckles at her proclamation.

“First day’s usually the worst.” She offers as a small condolence, “I’ll get you some pain killers.”

“Thank you.”

Once Zari leaves Gideon lets out a low moan, pressing her head deeper into the pillow. She feels a little stupid for not having realized sooner what was going on with her, but to be fair, she wasn’t even sure this was a possibility for her.

When the pain increases again she closes her eyes and presses a hand down firmly on her stomach, hoping to maybe alleviate some of the discomfort with pressure. It doesn’t work, not really, but it works enough that her thoughts start to drift to what this could mean for her.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that she can have children, but it’s a step in the right direction. Not that she wants children anytime soon; she and Rip have barely figured their relationship out. Not to mention she isn’t even sure if he wants children.

The door opens and she looks over, but instead of Zari standing there and holding the bottle of painkillers and another of water, it’s Rip; and he looks worried.

“Why did Ms. Tomaz ask me to bring these to you?” He asks, to which she chuckles before forcing herself to sit up with a wince.

“Nothing serious.” She promises, reaching out for the bottles and he comes over to the bed obediently.

Taking the painkillers is a test all in itself, she is nowhere near use to swallowing things whole and she actually spits them out at one point before she finally manages to get them down. She gasps once that’s finally done, and Rip is looking at her with the absolutely most worried expression she has ever seen on him, it’s kind of cute.

Still, she does have to ease it.

“I’m alright, really.” She promises, “I just um… I got my period today.”

His face goes a tint of red, and then, of all things, he laughs.

Not just a little bit. No, he stands up and barks out maybe the most genuine laugh she has ever seen from him, even doubling over from it.

“It’s not funny!” She protests half heartedly, standing up herself and regretting it instantly because the painkillers have not kicked in yet and OW.

“I… I know.” He manages between his bouts of laughter, straightening himself up and doing his best to compose himself, though the amused grin is still there. “I know it’s not. It’s just that I ran into Ms. Tomaz, and she shoved these things into my hands and asked me to bring them to you in your room, so I thought you were dying.”

She folds her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow at him.

“She gave you a bottle of standard painkillers, and your immediate thought was that I was dying?”

He shrugs, “In my defense, Ms. Darhk and Mr. Constantine both did say to keep an eye on any seemingly random pain that strikes you, as it could be a sign of the spell failing.”

She nods; she often tries not to think about that possibility. It’s been getting easier lately, she’s pretty sure that if the spell was going to spontaneously fail it would’ve done so by now. Still, the idea frightens her, but as the pain flares up in her belly again and she sinks herself back onto the bed she’s convinced more than ever that it isn’t going to fail.

Seriously, how long does it take these painkillers to work?

“Being human is hard.” She groans, flopping back on her back with her hands on her stomach again because, ok, that pressure did help a little bit.

“Really?” Rip scoffs, clearly amused by her handling of this whole thing. “I hadn’t noticed.”

She lolls her head to the side, groaning and glaring at him.

“Shut. Up.” She’s blunt, because now not only are the painkillers still not kicking in, but he is being the exact opposite of helpful. “ _You_ don’t have to deal with this.”

“I know.” He says, a flicker of sympathy finally in his eyes as he ambles over to the bed and perches himself on it’s edge.

She nuzzles her head against his leg, one of her arms slinging over his knees to keep him close to her. Ok, so this part of being human sucks, but with Rip stroking her hair in the gentle way that he is she just might to be able to get through it.

So long as she gets some better painkillers.


End file.
